The Mississippi Secretary of State’s office has formed a committee to review and study Mississippi’s election laws. One of the issues the group has been studying regards the primary election system in the state.
According to the Secretary of State’s office, the committee consists of more than 50 business, community and political leaders from across Mississippi. Every chosen member was highly recommended within his or her community.
Every member was assigned one of the four sub-committees to discuss and debate several election issues. The committees were formed on four types of election primary systems including the open primary, closed primary, semi- closed primary and top-two primary.
Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann said for several years his office believed it was time for Mississippians to come together and have a healthy, positive discussion about several election issues.
“We wanted Mississippians to be able to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of our primary election system, early voting, online voter registration and other issues. This discussion was predicated on our ability to successfully complete the implementation of a constitutional voter identification,” Hosemann said. 
The group has not finalized one single primary system, but after a few rounds of meetings and discussion it has chosen the open primary and the top-two primary system, which will then be further discussed and debated in the following meetings after which it will move forward as a recommendation to the legislature.
According to fairvote.org, “In an open primary system voters of any affiliation may vote in the primaries of any party they choose, they cannot vote in more than one party’s primary.” 
Additionally, voters are given an option of not declaring their party affiliation.
      During the discussion of this particular system, the Mississippi Secretary of State sub-committees looked at various events in the past concerning the open primary system, such as the Democratic Party of Hawaii’s challenge to this system which  argued open primaries placed a severe burden on its first amendment right to association and ability to “limit its association to people who share its views.” 
The group studied the federal district court’s ruling on the matter which ruled against the plaintiffs and upheld the state of Hawaii’s primary system.  
Haley Grantham, senior political science major at Mississippi State University, was selected to be a member on one of the sub-committees. She is the only representative from Starkville and MSU.
Grantham said Mississippi currently has a law that states a person cannot vote in a party primary unless they intend to support that party’s nominee in the general election. Grantham also said presently, this law is unenforceable and it is evident there needs to be an update made to the Mississippi election law. 
“At the conclusion of our research, hopefully the committee can come to an agreement so that the Secretary of State’s Office can submit a proposal to the legislature on our findings. They are ultimately the ones who have the power to change our system, so all the work of the committee will be complied and submitted to them,” Grantham said.
The state of Mississippi is one of the 19 states in the U.S. that currently has an open primary system.
The other option this committee narrowed down is the top-two primary systems.
The top-two primary system allows all candidates to appear on the same ballot regardless of party affiliation. The top two candidates with the maximum votes move on to the general election.
According to fairvote.org, “the top two system is used in California and Washington, as well as Nebraska for its non-partisan elections to the state’s legislature.”    
Secretary Hosemann said he will wait until the committee makes its recommendation to shape his opinion on these election issues.